Traceability

Traceability is a business process that enables trading partners to follow products forward and backward through the supply chain.

Produce Traceability

Traceability is important to the produce industry for many reasons, including improving food safety by being able to quickly and accurately remove potentially harmful products from the supply chain.

The Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) is an industry led initiative to achieve whole chain traceability in the produce supply chain by using common industry data standards and the electronic storage and retrieval of traceability related data.

Traceability has become an issue of great importance to the produce industry due to regulatory requirements such as the U.S. Bioterrorism Act, as well as ongoing food safety issues and the need for supply chain transparency and more information on the produce we grow, pack, ship, store, process, distribute and sell.

The Produce Traceability Initiative was formed in 2008 by representatives from over 40 companies including growers, packer/shippers, marketers, distributors and wholesalers, food service and retail and eight trade associations to begin working on an action plan to ensure the industry has a process that will work for the entire supply chain.

The Produce Traceability Initiative Steering Committee developed a traceability solution that members felt could be reasonably implemented by produce companies, large and small alike, across the entire supply chain and operating within the U.S. market and those exporting to the U.S.

Leafy Green Traceability Pilots Reveal the Value of Sharing Extended Product Information During a Traceback Investigation

On December 3, 2020 a group of six industry organizations released a report outlining four months of leafy green traceability pilots with supply chain partners, including growers, distributors and both independent and chain retailers, offering a detailed response to the request by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) for improved traceability in the food system.

The three pilots, conducted July through October, showed that investigations into foodborne illness outbreaks could be streamlined and conducted more effectively when supply chain partners provided extended product information during tracebacks.

Additionally, the use of a standard template called the Produce Traceback Template to exchange pertinent product information was found to enhance the speed of tracing procedures. All of the pilots were successful in tracing the source of the affected product.

Food Traceability in Legislative and Regulatory Circles

While several congressional bills include traceability either as a component or as the exclusive focus including the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which will encompass a record-keeping rule that focuses on traceability.

Industry Perspective on Proposed Rule

Growers, fresh-cut processors, distributors, and retail/foodservice sectors each face unique challenges in capturing, managing and linking traceability data, and developed a white paper to share some of these perspectives.

FDA's Product Tracing Pilot Report Released from IFT aligns with PTI

A report, Pilot Projects for Improving Product Tracing Along the Food Supply System Final Report, required by FSMA was published for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). It provided recommendations on traceability that are consistent with the industry's Produce Traceability Initiative.

The report aligns with PTI in many of its recommendations, including:

encouraging current industry-led initiatives
not excluding commodities
accepting electronic traceability data/records during product tracing investigations
requiring all organizations that handle food in the supply chain to identify and maintain records of traceability related information

Produce Traceability Initiative Participating Companies

PTI is supported by the volunteer work of dozens of companies that hail from across the fresh produce supply chain, from farm to store to table. Representatives of these companies currently serve as volunteers to PTI's Leadership Council, Executive Committee, working groups and/or task forces.

For additional guidance and tools, visit the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI) Resources & Tools page. The site offers implementation guidance, best practices, checklists, scorecards, case-labeling resources, traceability guides, e-learning modules and other tools.

These materials can help companies across the produce supply chain better understand traceability requirements, evaluate their current practices and take practical steps toward implementing consistent, effective traceability systems.

Global Food Traceability Center (GFTC)

The Global Food Traceability Center (GFTC) is a collaborative partnership including public and private stakeholders, created to address the challenges and opportunities of global food traceability implementation.

The Mission of the GFTC is to serve all aspects of the global food system by generating knowledge that addresses informational gaps while delivering applied research, objective advice, and practical expertise about food product traceability and data collaboration for private benefit and public good.

IFPA participates as the sole produce trade association as a founding member (then PMA) and advisory board member of the GFTC. This will ensure the fundamentals of the Produce Traceability Initiative will be adopted by the GFTC as the global standard for fresh produce traceability.

Useful Resources

E-learning Course: Traceability in the Fresh Produce Industry

Designed to assist the produce industry to learn how to implement traceability processes for their businesses, this e-Learning module is available to help improve supply chain efficiencies from the field to the consumer and ensure that the right product gets to the right place at the right time.

PLU Code Experts

Wendy Logan

Manager

Supply Chain and Sustainability

+1(302)607-2134 Email Wendy Logan